It is generally very difficult to teach children and especially young children to perform exercising maneuvers such as head stands, hand stands, tumbling and the like. The younger children usually have a fear of injuring themselves by falling on their backs. They can of course use conventional gymnastic mats, however, such mats are much too heavy and awkward for a young child to move and therefore, the child is restricted to the area in which he or she exercises.
Even the provision of a conventional tumbling mat may not totally rid the child of the fear of injury. Conventional mats can often be quite hard. They are flat with the back landing area is at the same level as the head supporting area, so that should the child topple backwards, the fall is not broken and the child will fall to a completely prone position absorbing the brunt of the fall in the small of the back.
In order to perform repeated tumbling exercises in the past, it has been necessary to align a plurality of tumbling mats. As can be appreciated, it is very easy to loose one's orientation and to stray from that aligned path of mats when repeating tumbling maneuvers. Due to spacial limitations, one is limited to certain areas where the aligned mats can be set up.
As anyone who exercises regularly will appreciate, continued practice in performing headstands, handstands, nip-ups, repeated tumbling maneuvers and the like can be very boring and monotonous. This is especially true for younger children who generally have a very limited span of attention.
The present invention provides a portable exercising mat comprising a first portion and a second portion integral with one another. The second portion is constructed from a soft resilient material and is thickened relative to the first portion. The arrangement is such that when a person using the mat is lying in a supine position on the mat with the user's head resting on the first portion, the user's back is supported by and arched over the second portion. Therefore, should the person exercising on the mat tumble backwards, his or her fall will be broken before reaching the prostrate or prone position. This is not only comforting from a physical stand point, but also provides a psychological inducement by helping to overcome the inherent fear of a young child in performing exercising maneuvers. The overcoming of this fear, especially in young children is the first step in acquiring basic gymnastic skills which are picked up quickly and easily through the use of the mat according to this invention.